Interest in adopting the now open source Live Thread add-on?

[the]

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/th-live-threads.95310

This add-on is close to done. But it moved to open source once licensing was bought out.

Known issues:

• There is something finicky in that the original post often disappears. That is likely an easy fix.
• The other thing that happens is sometimes random posts (maybe 1 out of 100) will disappear. You will see them load, but then hide almost right away. So something off in the code. Once the thread is no longer live, those posts show up.

Other than this, the add-on works great and doesn't seem to interfere with any other add-ons.

Requested additions:

• Timer to automatically unlive the thread after no one has posted for some time. That would prevent a thread from auto refreshing and wasting resources.
• Cron job to automatically make a thread live at a certain time. Lots of people use live thread add-ons during sporting events for instance. Would be good to have these already set so admins didn't have to be present.
• Some sort of icon on the forum thread list to indicate LIVE. This could be just a small tag so users new that was a live thread.
• Consider a way to see all current live threads via ACP or otherwise. This could help make sure all live threads were identified and unlived when done. Again, protect server resources.

Not only could you make this add-on for sale, I am willing to donate right up front to get these known issues corrected and moved out of the current beta version. Name a price?

 

[m1ne]

You don't like this one? https://xenforo.com/community/resources/sonnb-live-thread.1479/

 

[the]

You don't like this one? https://xenforo.com/community/resources/sonnb-live-thread.1479/

I am also in talks with @sonnb on some issues I am having with his add-on that might very well be forum specific only to me. I don't want to further comment as I'm not really in a proper position to comment on his work. He seems like a very quality upstanding programmer, so plenty use his add-on happily as well. I have donated for towards his and would do it again. If I can get everything I want from his add-on maybe I'll go that way. Mostly I want support and he is the only one supporting so far. So I made this thread.

With that said, I will say that both of these add-ons work in vastly different ways.

Some nice things about the now open-source live thread that @Jon W built is the timer intervals that allow variation in thread refreshing to smooth out server loads. Also, it doesn't seem to use a "live" template over the default one. This latter point is very important to on my site to minimize interaction with other add-ons like sidebar and below the quick reply add-ons. This may not matter for many. So with the exception of the post hiding oddity, the now open source "live threads" works great. With a few features, it could be a wonderful product. With barely any effort I suspect it could be a solid product with basic features that work well.

More competition means more likely to have options as xenforo versions advance

 

[m1ne]

So you want to minimize the layout for live threads or not? Just so I understand correctly.
My forum had a custom layout for sonnb's live plugin, we never released it actually. Is this something you're after?

Not sure I still have it or not.

 

[the]

So you want to minimize the layout for live threads or not? Just so I understand correctly.

No, but that is a really neat thought.

The SonnB live thread uses a "live" template that is completely separate from the default template. A live thread is redirected to \live
This is a positive in your example as you are able to customize that.
On the other hand it is more likely to interfere with other plugins that are not prepared to deal with this live template.



The JonW live threads open source add-on (the original I linked) does not use such a template. As such it seems to play nice with a lot of my other add-ons. That is one of my primary reasons for interest in someone continuing to support this add-on. It works completely differently.

You have given a good reason for people to be interested in the sonnb add-on. And perhaps is the reason he developed in that manner to begin with.

 

[m1ne]

Ah, gotcha.
Yeah, the default layout is fine as long as signatures are hidden and avatars are small.